Polk County Sheriff's Office Detective Daniel Cone
and civilian employee Pat Houser have been
selected as finalist for state awards given out by the Florida Missing
Children Information Clearinghouse Advisory Board.

Detective Daniel Cone is a finalist in the 2000 Florida Missing
Children's Local Law Enforcement Officer of the Year. The award recognizes
a local law enforcement officer's exceptional or extraordinary efforts,
resulting in the safe recovery of a missing child, solving a serial child
homicide case or solving a case involving child sexual exploitation. Cone,
38, was nominated because of his work on the December 1999 investigation
and arrest of a Lakeland man for sexual battery and lewd acts on a child.
Detective Cone is currently working as a detective in the Bureau of
Criminal Investigations.

"Detective Cone and Pat Houser are just two examples of the
professional, hard working and dedicated employees we have here at the
Sheriff's Office," said Sheriff Lawrence W. Crow, Jr.

Houser, 55, has been working in the Missing Persons unit with the
Sheriff's Office since 1999. In recognition of her accomplishments as a
civilian employee, Houser was selected from nominees across the state to
be recognized as a finalist for the 2000 Missing Children's Citizen of the
Year award. The award seeks to recognize a citizen's outstanding activity,
resulting in prevention of a child abduction, or the recovery of a child
from a situation of imminent danger. Houser has been employed by the
Sheriff's Office since 1994.